Characters..."The Avodart Crew"

This year we brought along Randy's 18 year old son. He has both Autism and Downs Syndrome. A delightful kid (but profoundly disabled)...he lives in a board and care that is threatening to close. Randy begged me to vote for Obama, as he feels the Democrats do a better job of taking care of the less fortunate than the Republicans. Randy, a divorced male, may soon be solely providing care for his wonderful, but severely disabled, child.

We go to war in the middle east...but we can't provide for those who suffer at home.

And here is Randy, enjoying a decent Sauvignon Blanc...

Steve, a Psychiatric Nurse for twenty five years, works the night shift. The eldest of our crew, he once was a driver for a (mafia?) firm in Los Angeles. He would pick up Lakers Basketball stars and drive them where-ever they wanted to go. Kareem Abdul Jabbar liked to drive himself (so Steve would ride with him). They shared a joint on one such journey to the airport...

Jeff...another of our crew...has been a psychiatric nurse for 28 years. His hero is Hunter Thompson. From New York, he is perhaps the wittiest and most irreverent person I've ever met.
And that's me in front of Mt. Tallack. We climbed that mountain a couple of years ago. I've been hanging around Lake Tahoe since 1993. This year was the first year there wasn't any snow on any of the peaks around the lake...

Why the Avodart Crew? This morning at three a.m., I wandered out of my tent to take a leak. I walked a few steps from the tent and looked over my shoulder. There was Jeff, doing the same thing. Another turn of the head, and I saw Steve also peeing outside his tent.

Since we are all between 46 and 56 years of age, getting up in the middle of the night to pee---we dubbed ourselves "The Avodart Crew" this morning. Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go....